Why buy when you can rent or borrow?

In today's society we are trained by mass media that purchasing something is probably the best thing to do.


Have you ever thought about renting a movie rather than buying it?

Have your thought of going to the library rather than buying a book from the bookstore?

Have you ever thought of renting a larger vehicle for use on the weekends were potentially renting a truck for moving something rather than buying your own truck and parking in the driveway?


What about power tools? Can you rent a saw rather than buying one? Can you borrow a saw rather than buying one?

There are probably more examples that I have not identified and that you can come up with. Overall, you can easily save money by not buying something that you will only use once and never again. If you use it multiple times, then buying it might not be a bad idea. Conversely, if you want to be a super stingy person than you can also rent it multiple times or even borrow it multiple times.

Sort grocery bags into 'food grade', clean, and garbage (for reuse)

At home, we sort our bags into three main categories or grades:

1. Food grade - bread bags (after shaking out crumbs), cereal bags (after eating the cereal and the crumbs), clean unused produce bags - these will be reused for packaging things like meats for the freezer compartment. Definition of 'food grade' = if food can touch the bag without being wrapped in something else, and that the bag was intended to contain food. Those bags which are clean, but previously had electronics in them, should not be used for this purpose!

2. Clean - something that is not food has been previously put in it, but the bag appears visually clean (i.e. bags from department stores that have had dry items put into them). We reuse these bags for general purpose, and when we're done using them, we classify them into our #3 category, for triple reuse. Triple reuse? [once at the store, once doing something else, and finally to contain garbage]... you could theoretically use them more than three times before their final common pathway, the garbage bag.

3. Garbage grade - these are also 'diaper grade'. We relegate these bags, which are slightly dirty, and definitely not clean or food grade, into a big bag in the closet. These bags are used for throwing out dirty diapers or lining the insides of trash cans.

Why buy garbage bags when you get bags of all sorts at the stores? This basically ensures you have an endless supply of garbage bags for life!!

Flat tire patrol: population frugality

I was walking to work the other day and spotted a car with a flat tire. Firstly, the flat tire can have dangerous consequences, especially if it had blown on the highway and potentially caused one or more collisions.

But... thinking frugally.... what if we kept an eye out for flat tires in cars that drive by? We could save gas for others, eventually reducing our carbon impact on the environment, and potentially decrease consumption? Personally, it's about the safety of the passengers in others' cars, but if we did this as a population (i.e. kept vigilance for people with flat tires), we could save our society a lot of gas.

Just some random musings.

Don't skimp out on insurance

You should never skimp out on insurance. Insurance is for those times that are catastrophic (i.e. house burns down, you hit something/someone in your car, you lose your arm - and you are a surgeon, or you end up dying and leaving your dependents in debt). Make sure you have enough insurance to cover your specific situation.

Being frugal doesn't mean skimping out on insurance for catastrophic events. You need to be frugal lifestyle-wise (i.e. buying normal clothes, having normal 'stuff' - rather than designer), but when it comes to shelling out for the appropriate amount of insurance, you should do so.

When it comes to insurance, shop around and don't engage in high risk activity that could increase your premium. Increase deductibles but keep an appropriate amount in the bank in case you have to pay the deductible. Ask the insurance company how to go about decreasing your risk (i.e. install fire alarms, driving less, etc) and ask if there are any discounts associated.